COLOMBO: China has turned its back when it came to assisting Sri Lanka which appealed to reschedule its Chinese debt burden in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has adversely affected the tourism sector.

Sri Lanka appealed if a restructuring of the debt could be arranged to mitigate the economic crisis that had arisen in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Hong Kong Post reported.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in a meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi sought the assistance in the face of the deepening foreign exchange crisis of the island nation and spiraling external debt, the report said.

“Responding to a query on the pending request from Sri Lanka for a debt relief, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said that China had been providing assistance for the socio-economic development of Sri Lanka to the best of its ability and would continue to do so. In concrete terms, this meant nothing,” the Hong Kong Post report said.

According to a media report, Beijing has only shed crocodile tears over Sri Lanka’s economy getting caught in a quagmire after hobnobbing with the BRI projects of China, record inflation, soaring food prices and people’s sufferings.

One of Sri Lanka’s main foreign exchange-earners, and the country’s debts spiraled and foreign exchange reserves shrunk as the end result of reckless borrowings from China to finance infrastructure projects, according to the Hong Kong Post.

With the country’s tourism hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, its economic structure, which was already tottering under the burden of loans, crumbled, it said adding that a major part of this debt was owed to China, which accounts for nearly USD 8 billion.

According to the report, this debt burden was a result of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects like Hambantota Port and Colombo Port City for which Chinese agencies lent large amounts to Sri Lanka under stiff terms of repayment.

In 2021-22, Colombo’s debt repayment to Beijing amounted to nearly USD 2 billion.

Likewise, Hambantota port has already been leased out to China for 99 years against USD 1.2 billion, the report added.

(Inputs from The Hong Kong Post/ndtv)